Monday, February 05, 2007

War on terror, is it?

In today's Herald (sorry Jean, it's a Glasgow paper) there is an article about how German prosecutors are attempting to arrest CIA agents for the illegal abduction of a German citizen.

This week, the unthinkable happened to the untouchables. German prosecutors issued arrest warrants for 13 CIA agents in connection with the alleged abduction of a German citizen. Khaled al-Masri says he was kidnapped in Macedonia in 2003, taken to Afghanistan and accused of having ties to al Qaeda. After five months of interrogation, during which he claims to have been beaten, his captors realised they had lifted the wrong man and dumped him in Albania.

The German warrants are not the first. Italian prosecutors want to charge 25 CIA agents over the "extraordinary rendition", as the process of snatch and despatch to secret prisons is known, of a cleric from Milan. The German charges are more significant because of the country's strategic importance to the US, and the weight of evidence al-Masri, with the help of his lawyer and journalists, has been able to amass.

From being a lone voice telling a strange tale that few believed, al-Masri has the attention of the German public, media, parliament and prosecutors. Questions are being asked of ministers.

Saturday, February 03, 2007

Silent Poetry Reading

In honour of St Brigid's Day. This isn't a poem, per se, but the lyrics of a song.

Nothing ever happensDel Amitri (a Glasgow band)

Post office clerks put up signs saying "position closed"And secretaries turn off typewriters and put on their coatsJanitors padlock the gatesFor security guards to patrolAnd bachelors phone up their friends for a drinkWhile the married ones turn on a chat show

And they'll all be lonely tonight and lonely tomorrow

Gentlemen time please, you know we can't serve anymoreNow the traffic lights change to stop, when there's nothing to goAnd by five o'clock everything's deadAnd every third car is a cabAnd ignorant people sleep in their bedsLike the doped white mice in the college lab

Nothing ever happens, nothing happens at allThe needle returns to the start of the songAnd we all sing along like before

And we'll all be lonely tonight and lonely tomorrow

Telephone exchanges click while there's nobody thereThe martians could land in the carpark and no one would careClose-circuit cameras in department stores shoot the same video every dayAnd the stars of these films neither die nor get killedJust survive constant action replay

Nothing ever happens, nothing happens at allThe needle returns to the start of the songAnd we all sing along like before

And we'll all be lonely tonight and lonely tomorrow

Bill hoardings advertise products that nobody needsWhile angry from manchester writes to complain aboutAll the repeats on t.v.And computer terminals report some gainsOn the values of copper and tinWhile american businessmen snap up van goghsFor the price of a hospital wing

Nothing ever happens, nothing happens at allThe needle returns to the start of the songAnd we all sing along like beforeNothing ever happens, nothing happens at allTheyll burn down the synagogues at six oclockAnd well all go along like before

Well finally!

The new hotel website is complete. Please let me know if you spot anything amiss.

I'm pleased with the overall effect, and just have to complete the Polish version which was translated by Magda for me a few months ago. Then it's a gentle hint or three to the sister-in-law about a French version, and so it goes....

I'm not sure why the blogs don't show up on PCs running IE6: if you have any ideas, please shout.

Sewing

My little Singer sewing machine is unwell. It's skipping stitches if I try to sew at anything approaching a reasonable speed. However I have the loan of a Janome (thanks Rei) and have been trying it out. I'm used to the Singer, so there are a few things that are irritating about the new machine, but all in all it seems a good basic machine.

As a result of this, I can report another summer blouse completed:

You can read all about it here on Pattern Review which is a wonderful site.

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Fibre-Crafts Retreat: 18 - 21 May 2007

Yes, you read that correctly. We are going ahead with the Retreat one week later than originally advertised.

To recap, Janis Embleton of Flight Weaving and Lorna Noble of LornaJay Designs will be hosting the first Scottish Borders Fibre-Crafts Retreat at the Spread Eagle Hotel in Jedburgh from 18 – 21 May 2007.

The residential retreat will include:

a full day workshop in either backstrap weaving or patchwork knitting

a Borders Banquet and introduction to the textile history of the area

a trip to the excellent Woolly Ewe wool shop in Kelso

and plenty of socialising.

The Spread Eagle Hotel, on the High Street in Jedburgh, dates from around 1450 and has been licensed since 1604, making it Scotland's oldest continually-licensed hotel.

Monday, January 08, 2007

Thank you!

for all your good wishes over the Christmas and New Year period. It's really lovely to hear from you all!

EscapeOn Thursday I scuttled off to Glasgow to do some shopping. Ostensibly it was a trip to buy fabric for the corridor window curtains at the Cotton Print Warehouse in Govan, but I snuck in a meetup with the folks from Pattern Review and some shopping for me.